1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to dollies and other devices used to move heavy or awkward loads by hand, and more particularly to dollies that are used to carry or move heavy or awkward objects within trucks or other confined areas.
2. Description of the Related Art
Dollies, hand trucks, and the like, together with raw manpower have long been used to load and unload trucks. The use of many people to load or unload a truck or to move heavy and/or awkward objects is becoming less and less attractive as the cost of the hourly wage increases. In addition to the labor costs are the costs associated with an on the job injury to one of these workers. These costs include both the cost of Worker""s Compensation Insurance and the cost associated with the loss of the injured individual""s labor for a period of time while the injury heals. During the period of time when a person is absent from work due to an injury, not only does an employer usually have to pay the absent worker, the employer may also have to pay the wages of a replacement worker who may be unfamiliar with the employer""s operations.
Moving, loading, or unloading of heavy or awkward to carry items raises the risk substantially of a worker being injured. While the use of conventional handcarts, hand trucks, dollies and the like can prevent many injuries, these unloading and loading tools are not effective for all types of cargo. For example, a large king size mattress can weigh as much as two hundred pounds and have dimensions exceeding six feet long, six feet wide, and fourteen inches high. Moving a large mattress using a hand truck or dolly can be very difficult in the confines of a truck. The regular dolly or hand truck has a relatively narrow shelf and wheelbase compared to the width or length of a mattress. A typical dolly will have a wheel base and shelf width of approximately two feet. Occasionally, a hand truck will have a shelf width or wheelbase of three feet. The wider hand trucks, however, are heavier and more difficult to maneuver. The combination of a confined area, a narrow shelf width, and a large bulky package or mattress to be moved makes for a time-consuming and difficult operation using the dolly. This difficulty is accentuated when trying to carry a mattress on a standard dolly or hand truck, since the width of the mattress is perpendicular to the direction of travel. Since moving a mattress with a dolly is awkward, a mattress or box spring is often carried by hand with the associated risks already discussed. An additional disadvantage of a hand truck or dolly is that the hand truck or dolly must either be left on the loading dock or securely fastened inside the truck to prevent damage to the packages, mattresses or other cargo being carrier. Typically, the hand truck or dolly would be tied to one side or the other at the back of the truck. Furthermore, the space taken up by the dolly is space in which a mattress or other cargo can not be carried, thus reducing the total load carrying capacity of the truck.
Modern mattresses are both heavy and awkward for one person to carry or more with a hand truck or dolly, and are awkward for two people to carry, Therefore, a dolly is needed that will enable a truck driver or other worker to quickly and easily move a mattress, box spring, or other heavy and awkward package in a truck or other confined area while minimizing the risk of injury to the worker.
The present invention has solved the package handling problems cited above and generally comprises a sliding dolly. There is a dolly back frame, and a dolly shelf. Additionally, depending on the embodiment used, there may be a slider and/or roller assembly. In the embodiment that is similar to a hand dolly, there is a roller assembly that is joined to the back frame or shelf such that the rollers or other support means support the sliding dolly and permit the dolly to move over a generally horizontal surface such as a truck, container, or warehouse floor. In an alternative embodiment, the slider may provide both a means for supporting and a means for guiding the sliding dolly. Other embodiments may use a roller assembly combined with a slider. In some of these embodiments, the roller assembly can provide the primary means for supporting the dolly and the slider can provide the primarily guide means for the dolly. Alternatively, the roller assembly may share the support function with the slider. In the preferred embodiment, the slider primarily provides both the means for supporting and the means for guiding the sliding dolly and the roller assembly provides the means for holding the dolly away from a truck side, wall, or other generally vertical surface to which the slider may be attached.
In the preferred embodiment, both the shelf and the roller assembly are joined to the back frame. In some embodiments, the roller assembly may be joined to the connection between the frame and the shelf or to the shelf, The back frame is joined to and depends from the slider. The slider permits the attached back frame, together with the shelf and roller assembly to move along the slider. The slider is typically fastened along one of the sides of a truck, container, or other confined area. The roller assembly, if used, has one or more devices that reduce the friction of moving the sliding dolly along the side of the truck by holding the dolly back frame and shelf away from the side of the truck. A mattress, box spring or other heavy and large or awkward package is placed on the shelf, and then the truck driver or person unloading the truck would simply move the sliding dolly to the rear of the truck where the mattress or other object being carried would be transferred to a fork lift or other mechanism for unloading or transferring the goods in the warehouse.
An object of the present invention is to provide a sliding dolly that will permit a truck driver or other person moving objects in a truck, container, or other confined area to easily move packages, mattresses or other similar objects.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a sliding dolly which has a shelf that can be folded upward and the dolly secured to the inside of the truck to prevent damage to the cargo being carried through movement of a loose dolly.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a dolly whose general direction of motion is parallel to the width of the load.
Additional objects, advantages and other novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned with the practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.